The Huntley Farmside

              Volume 40 No. 1
Your hometown newspaper
Thursday, ' January 6,2000
© 2000 Press-Republican Newspapers
Inside
Health feature
Although most adults know they should pay attention to moles on their own skin, few think of the dangers to chil¬ dren.
Page 2
Rotary comes 'round
A Huntley Rotary will join 22,000 Rotary International clubs from around the world.   ¦
Page 3
Christmas cooking
First-graders at Huntley North Elementary School celebrate the holidays with gingerbread fun.
Pages
1
January in Huntley
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Press-Republican photo by Mark Busch
Ashley Branch, 8, and Brittany Branch,4, of Huntley repair their snowman Thursday after warm temper¬
atures melted it during the week.
Freund expands, increases payroll to 160
by Christopher Petersen
Press-Republican Newspapers
One of Huntley's biggest employers is getting bigger.
Freund International, dealers of semi-trailer trucks throughout the Midwest, has expanded its operation in the village to accom¬ modate increased business.
Freund has just bought the Dean Foods truck maintenance building located at 12007 Smith Drive. The company had been renting the building from Dean Foods since earlier last June. This move increases Freund's payroll to 160 employees.
The truck dealer has already been operating out of their loca¬ tion on Route 47 in the village, but the space inside the building has proven to be inadequate for what the company needs. Truck sales have skyrocketed since Freund first went into business, when they averaged around 400 trucks sold in a year That num¬ ber has gone up to around 1,500 a year now.
"We've expanded dramatical¬ ly, and we're out of space here," said company president Phil Fre¬ und. "Our business has grown over the last several years."
The newly-purchased Dean
Foods building will be used by Freund to do maintenance work on their trucks, as well as their truck-leasing operation, which boasts over 400 trucks in its fleet available for use.
Not all of the building's 15,600 square feet will be used by Fre¬ und, but the opportunity and potential for expansion exists. Some renovation was done to the building by Freund, but other¬ wise the building was in good shape. Freund expanded the building's office space and added other amenities like a driver's waiting room.
See Freund Page 2 '
District 158 plans for replacement
Hartley to retire, superintendent job open in July 2001
by Christopher Petersen
Press-Republican Newspapers
J.R. Hartley, who has served the Huntley Unit District 158 for the past six years, has announced that he will retire his position as district superintendent in July of 2001. With the announcement comes a flurry of activity from the School Board, who are now trying to find Hartley's replace¬ ment.
"We want to make sure that the new candidate can hit the ground running," said board president Gary Slagle.
School Board members are hoping to find a candidate to fill an associate superintendent posi¬ tion this summer so that they will be ready to replace Hartley when he does retire. .The associ¬ ate superintendent would serve as Hartley's assistant until such time.
Hartley has made it clear in years past that he will not seek to continue on as superintendent after his current contract expires in July 2001,,giving the School Board plenty of time to find a suitable successor for him.
"We think we'll be success¬ ful," Slagle said. "There's a lot of superintendents out there in school districts that are stagnant who would, see this as an oppor-
See Hartley Page 2
WeVe made some changes for the new year!
Rick Nagel executive editor
Happy New Year!
With the new season comes a renewed vitality in The Huntley Farmside.
As you can see, we've made some changes, with a newspaper that's taller, more colorful and more exciting than ever before.
In this issue, we've brought together some of the best writers, photographers   and   editors   in
Illinois. We've brought color back to the front page. We've created a paper that's better organized, bet¬ ter designed and, we hope, more meaningful to residents of Huntley.
Our pledge to you in this brave new century is that we will work hard each week to improve this product.
What we hope for in return is
your participation.
Send us your letters to the edi¬ tor, tell us what you like and don't like. Contact us with your ideas for news stories or features.
To reach Pat Kolle, our general manager, stop by the office at 11801 Main St., write us at P.O. Box 127 Huntley, IL 60142, or send us an e-mail at editor@press- repub.com